Friday, 19 February 2016
Easiest closeup flower photo of the day: this hyacinth was in an almost eye-level planting by the sidewalk. A bit frost-nipped….
I smelled a combination of honey and orange…looked for the flower and found this unassuming specimen. Sorry I can’t post the lovely scent.
For no apparent reason, I include this knobby tire/wheel, aka tire with toenails, as I once heard it put.
Happy spring, or almost-spring.
Thursday, 18 February 2016
Mahonia spp. I’m used to yellow flowers and blue “fruit,” but this one has yellow fruit.
Yesterday I encountered a word I hadn’t remembered encountering before, but of course I had…and forgotten. The word is carnyx. Synonyms are war trumpet and Celtic horn. Apparently it was ritual instrument used in warfare. Only a very few have been found—and only one in the British Isles: the Deskford carnyx.
I saw that carnyx in a display at the National Museum of Scotland, along with a reconstruction (with a tantalizing red tongue). And I saw the word carnyx in the accompanying explanatory materials.
However, I focused on getting a decent memory-photo (bad reflections), and thought about how big it was—serious mixed media and complex metallurgy techniques, it seemed to me—still does.
The Gundestrup caldron, found in northern Denmark, has a panel showing a trio of carnyx players (Open Commons photo). This helps us know how it was used. Read more on this page by acoustics professor Daniel A. Russell. He also details many of the times illustrator Albert Uderzo used versions of the instrument in the Astérix series.
Holding those tall pipes must have been tricky while walking. The much later, stubbier bagpipes made music-while-marching much easier, I would think.
I’m guessing carnyces fit into the group of instruments that create vibrating columns of air.
Thursday, 11 February 2016
I found a horsetail hedge today. Actually, I’ve seen it before, but it didn’t occur to me that what I was seeing has an alliterative name.
Speaking of horses—and carriages—here’s a mounting block, I assume more recent than the days when it was needed, and thus for show. I would have expected the name to be on the street side…. Maybe the owner prefers to look out his (her?) front door and see his (her?) name out by the street, creating a feel-good (possessive?) moment?
Tuesday, 9 February 2016
Unseen: snow flurries.
Unseen: biting, cold wind.
Conclusion: winter weather re-materialized.
Friday, 5 February 2016
Not about my vote, but about what photo to post. I think I ceded a few IQ points to the sunshine when we soaked it in by Mr. Frog (Reader version) at the ABG. This is his (seems male to me) shoulder weld.
At the conservatory, we enjoyed the mystery mist effect.
Sometime we’ll stop here for a snack and a glass of wine. This is the patio refreshment stand, and it’s relatively new. So far, if we eat, we enjoy the café.
Bye, ABG.
Monday, 1 February 2016
More unexpected blooms…pretty darned early to find phlox. Love ’em, though.
Strolled by this 20th-C church on Degress Avenue just as it was catching the late-day light. Apparently the building is a remodeled house. It’s on the hilltop that was ground zero for the Battle of Atlanta on 22 July 1864, at least in the version portrayed in the Cyclorama (currently being restored at the Atlanta History Center). Love the capitals atop the skeuomorphic (right?) columns that are really small-scale buttresses if you look behind the bushes.
Saturday, 30 January 2016
Off to the ABG on a warm sunny day—unseasonably warm and sunny. Still, I decided, I’ll take advantage!
I tried to get this shot last week, but it wasn’t in focus. Got it today.
Meanwhile, out in the sun, Pan played his two bronze(?) pipes. LoveLove the shadow.
Friday, 29 January 2016
These crocuses surprised me—seems pretty darned early for them, even in ATL. (#notmyyard #notmygarden)
The sign says “open,” but the restaurant’s really closed and for lease. It’s not that I’m a skeptic!—it really is!
This is just a simple, organic beauty shot, the kind I like so well…in this case, gleaming chestnuts from China.
Today’s a Random-Topic Friday in this little spot on the web.
Tuesday, 26 January 2016
I have seen these outdoors at the BotGarden and in yards, but never looked them up. I found an identification plaque near this one in the BotGarden, but couldn’t tell if it was for this plant. A quick smart-phone search and…tada! this is a Fatsia spp (probably F. japonica). To me, the leaves look like a strange castor bean.
This striking flower cluster was in the BotGarden conservatory, and I did not look for a label. One of life’s mysteries….
We found many volunteers and employees of the ABG busy with mid-winter spiffing, indoors and out. When we were in the conservatory, we found many rakes and trimmings, but no people. Break time?
Overwintering Canada geese (and other waterfowl) in the park…these were swimming to a white-bread-spreading family…; is that the goose equivalent of Mc_Donald’s nutrition? Photo is to show that although we saw several ghosty shadows, mostly it was thoroughly overcast.
Wednesday, 13 January 2016
Walking by this healthy stand of bamboo, I thought, why aren’t the world’s ecosystems dominated by cockroaches and bamboo? Or, more abstractly, insects and grasses?
Or maybe they are, if you ignore the little-ees, the viruses, bacteria and their ilk. Which seems like a lot.
A bench and a water feature elevates this front yard to fancy. Needs a touch of weeding, though. Love the cushions.
And I’m so excited: I found out the other day that this is the turkey-tail fungi…I didn’t expect to see one until late next summer. I was wrong.
